


Damn Lucky

by Todesengel



Series: Steampunk!Seven [15]
Category: Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Gen, Steampunk!Seven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-22 22:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Todesengel/pseuds/Todesengel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the iron horse debacle...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Damn Lucky

All things considered, Buck reckons Josiah was damn lucky he'd been out of town when the iron horse had blown up. If he'd been around, they'd probably need to call in another priest to bury Josiah, 'cause Buck would've killed him deader than a flop house on a Sunday morning. As it was, he thinks he showed remarkable restraint – after all, the black eye he'd given Josiah was no worse than the shiners Josiah occasionally gave himself – and he tells J.D. this often and loudly as he helps him navigate the town on his crutches. 

"And you!" he says to J.D. as they amble (or, in J.D.'s case, hobble) from the boarding house to the saloon, "What in the hell were you thinkin' getting up on that thing? Ain't you got the sense God gave ketchup?"

"Everything was workin' fine until that strap broke," J.D. tells him for the hundredth time. "And it's no big deal. I've been hurt plenty worse before."

"That's no kind of argument!" Buck shakes his head, and just barely stops himself from socking J.D. on the shoulder – the kid is unsteady enough with the crutches as it is, and Buck sure as shootin' doesn't want to risk Nathan's wrath. "Kid, for someone as smart as you claim to be, you sure make some really stupid decisions."

"It wasn't stupid." J.D. grunts as he hoists himself up the two small steps to the saloon's porch. "And anyway, if it weren't for people like me an' Josiah, we'd all be livin' in caves and eatin' raw meat."

"It's people like you and Josiah that're makin' it so a man can't hardly take a step without the fear of somethin' going boom," Buck retorts, taking J.D.'s elbow and neatly pulling him out of the way of a drunk who looked the type to bear unreasonable grudges. 

"Yeah, yeah." J.D. shakes Buck's hand off and propels himself to their usual table. Buck watches him go – awkward, jerky, the entirety of his left leg wrapped up in a dirty bandage that makes the limb as stiff as a corpse's. He clears his throat against the uncomfortable lump and scowls at Josiah where he's sitting, beer in one hand, a whole mess of papers spread out before him – probably the plans for the Iron Horse, 2.0.

Yup. Josiah was damn lucky Buck hadn't been in town when the iron horse exploded – and that Nathan had been right there to keep J.D. safe. 

And he ignores the guilt that gnaws at him because he hadn't been.


End file.
